High school was a long trip that went by fast. The prospect of four long years before my graduation was unbearable as a freshman.
Three years and some months later, high school still seems a burden. If I have learned anything throughout the time I've spent trying to be successful in my classes, it's that the classes almost never seemed to be the top priority.
Always welcoming the thought of socialization, high school for most people seems like a place to fraternize with peers, rather than prepare for the future. So, the most monumental aspects of my educational career thus far, are the friends I've made and lost along the way.
I've learned the basics of human socialization, and emotions. The ease in which acquaintances become friends, friends become best friends, and best friends become enemies is startling to any onlooker, yet it's everyday life for adolescents.
The fire that burns in any heated mature romance dulls in comparison to the connections many people believe they achieve with their most trusted confidants and companions in high school.
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I know that the time I've served as a teen scholar has been full of different companions, most waning away after a few months, but none leaving my memory.
The end of high school looms ahead and is as inviting as ever, yet many still are wary. I know that despite constant promises to one another, most people will not remain "friends forever."
I look forward to the people I will meet in my future, yet the past is the substance that created me, and my peers. Every action, whether involuntary or not, has formed us into the people we are today.
Who we are and what we have achieved today is an indication of who we will be and what we will achieve tomorrow. A person's determination and drive rarely changes, the way people steer themselves through high school can determine where their life is headed.
Although this isn't always true, as millionaire high school dropouts will readily boast, education is a key part to growing into a rounded human. Grades aren't the only indicators to where one will go post-graduation.
Failed or successful high school relationships can also specify where ones life will lead, socially that is. Multiple rocky relationships at a young age may lead to the same problems in adulthood, while youthful romance can lead to a seemingly bland personality and dependency on the opposite sex.
High school is a large portion of every American's life. Although it doesn't ultimately determine the route one's life will take, it is an indicator. We are shaped by our surroundings, and for four of our developmental and vastly social years, we are in high school.
We learn our original social traits from family and close family friends, we tweak these habits in high school, and we finalize them in college or our young adult years after high school.
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Sarah Rosten is a senior at Detroit Lakes High School.
